1. Field of the Description
The present invention relates, in general, to walk-around costumed characters and control over audio output (e.g., a character may sing or talk when its systems are selectively operated) on such walk-around characters, and, more particularly, to methods and systems for implementing remote triggering or control over a walk-around character costume (i.e., its audio and/or animating components) to selectively and more effectively trigger audio playback of pre-recorded and stored audio clips in an asynchronous manner (and, in some cases, to concurrently or separately trigger operation of mechanical and/or electrical components that cause the costume components to move or to be animated).
2. Relevant Background
Walk-around or costumed characters are used to entertain and interact with visitors of many facilities including theme or amusement parks such as during meet-and-greet shows and theatrical shows at such facilities. A walk-around character may be provided by an operator or performer wearing a costume including a head that covers the performer's face. The costume head is mounted to or supported on a headband worn by the performer or head-worn suspension or hat suspension may be used to support the costume head. In the head and/or costume, equipment including sound equipment (e.g., a speaker for playing pre-recorded audio) and robotics are provided so that a walk-around character can “speak” with visitors by playing back pre-recorded lines of conversation that may be scripted in advance, by playing live voice from backstage performers, and/or by outputting the in-costume performer's voice to provide a meetable character or “hero” that can also, if desired, be animated to move their eyes, mouth, and other features on their head or face while they talk and interact with the visitors.
In many applications, the walk-around character is representing a character from a movie, a video game, a cartoon, or the like. The visitors expect that character to have a particular or a single voice, e.g., the voice used in the movie, and the quality and believability of this voice-over content often cannot be recreated electronically, e.g., with a voice changer. As a result, the performer cannot use their own voice when they meet and talk with visitors, and, instead, scripted lines and dialog (i.e., audio content) typically are recorded by pre-approved voice talent for each of the walk-around characters to provide the expected voices. Onboard audio or sound equipment in the worn costume is provided to store the audio clips, to allow their ready retrieval, and to provide speakers for local output of the audio content to nearby visitors when the audio equipment is controlled or triggered to playback these lines at appropriate times. The character's head may simultaneously be animated such as by operating robotics to provide mouth movement and eye blinks synchronized to the audio playback.
To allow each walk-around character to speak to visitors, there has to be an effective way to trigger the audio that cannot be detected by the nearby visitors. The triggering mechanism should not be audible to the visitor. In some implementations, control is provided to the performer within the costume using finger paddles that the performer can operate to lip sync the character mouth to the pre-recorded audio track being played back to the visitor. Use of finger paddles by the actor or puppeteer wearing the costume, though, may be apparent to the visitors, which can detract from the illusion or desired effect.
Other implementations use a backstage operator who has control over the audio and animation by selectively sending wireless control signals to the costume's sound and animation system. However, it has proven very difficult for this backstage operator to control, in real time, the simultaneous audio playback and animation of the costume's features in a manner that appears interactive with visitors and works for a real-time meet and greet with these visitors. Hence, many applications have been limited to playback of predetermined “canned” animation of the costume's features with audio playback synchronized with such animation, e.g., in a show or a parade audio or a soundtrack and/or dialog is synchronized with animation by robotics via a Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE) time code or the like.
There remains a need for effective ways to control walk-around character equipment such as to control an audio playback and animation of the character's mouth. Preferably, the controls would not be audible and would not be detectable by an observer. Also, it would be useful for such controls to be in adaptive in real time to provide a walk-around costumed character that interacts in a conversational manner with visitors in a meet-and-greet or similar interactive experience.